Systems and methods for a comprehensive online health care platform

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for a comprehensive online healthcare platform are provided that increase the efficiency of the medication selection process. In one embodiment, a method comprises responsive to a query from the user via the user device, receiving a list of one or more medications identified from a storage device and receiving medication information about each identified medication in the list of the one or more medications from the storage device. The method further includes, calculating a user personalized grade for each of the identified medications based on the medication information and the user information, transmitting the user personalized grade and medication information to the user device and displaying simultaneously on the user device, the user personalized grade, cost factor, prescription experience data, and secondary technical effects of each identified medication.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 15/085,746, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR A COMPREHENSIVE ONLINEHEALTH CARE PLATFORM,” filed Mar. 30, 2016, which claims priority toU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/140,374, entitled “SYSTEMSAND METHODS FOR A COMPREHENSIVE ONLINE HEALTH CARE PLATFORM,” and filedon Mar. 30, 2015, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporatedby reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND/SUMMARY

In the modern world, consumers are accustomed to a wide array of optionswhen shopping for goods and services. Furthermore, online shopping atmarketplaces such as Amazon, enable consumers to make informedpurchasing decisions by comparing products by their price, quality, userreviews, user comments, etc. However, in today's health caremarketplace, consumers are unable to compare medications using the sameconsumer tools as available in other marketplaces. Many healthconditions have a variety of potential medications used for treatment.For example, there are a plurality of types of prescription medicationsused to treat high blood pressure. However, sorting through, comparing,and selecting a medication may be a time consuming, and even ineffectiveprocess. Patients may end up spending more money on a medication that isless effective than other lower-priced counterparts. Given the limitedtime patients have with doctors and the limited knowledge patients haveabout the differences between medications, the large number of potentialmedications often present an obstacle to productive patient involvementin the process of selecting a medication.

Patients and doctors face several obstacles in determining the mosteffective, safe and least costly medication option. First, because ofthe lack of transparency in the medication selection process, there area substantial number of medication alternatives that may be overlookedby both patients and doctors. Many factors may be considered by apatient when selecting a medication: the effectiveness, cost, sideeffects, health risks, etc., of the medication. However, currently,patients are not able to compare all medication options produced bydifferent companies, side by side by their relevant information.Currently, patients may sort through medications by price, oreffectiveness, or by side effects. However, it may be more efficient fora patient to be able to compare the relevant information for allmedications on one display. In doing so, patients can more easily findthe most effective, safe, and least costly medication option. Further,enabling patients to sort medications based on their preferences mayincrease the transparency of medication options. As an example, if thecost of a medication is a priority for the patient, the patient couldsort the medication from lowest to highest cost while still being ableto view and compare other aspects of the medications such as theireffectiveness, side effects, etc.

Second, patients with the same condition who use the same medicationwill often experience different outcomes. Said another way, theeffectiveness of a medication may not be the same for all patients.Differences in a patient's medical information, such as their medicalhistory, age, gender, currently prescribed medications, etc., may allaffect the effectiveness of a medication in treating a patient's medicalcondition. Non-medical information such as a patient's lifestyle,values, preferences, work condition, financial condition, etc., may alsoaffect the effectiveness of a medication. As such, the predictedeffectiveness of a medication should reflect a patient's medical andnon-medical information. Current attempts to predict the effectivenessof a medication may be based on clinical studies, and publishedscientific literature concerning the medication. However, these attemptsmay assign a fixed user personalized grade to the medication, withoutaccounting for patient-to-patient differences.

Third, in the United States, the time doctors spend with patients tounderstand their individual situations is getting shorter and shorter,as both caseloads and administrative loads increase faster than thephysician population. As a result, doctors may avoid shared decisionmaking and patient-centered care because it takes more time tounderstand what is personal about a patient's feelings and situation andhow to apply that to a medication choice. This is a problem becausestudies show that patients who are more involved in choosing their caretend to get better outcomes. Accordingly, there is a need in the art forimproved methods and systems for helping patients select medications.

Several attempts to address transparency issues in the process ofselecting medication have been made. For example, US patent application2014/0,244,292 discloses a method for recommending treatment options topatients based on the predicted effectiveness of the treatment option.The predicted effectiveness may take into account medical andnon-medical characteristics of the patient to improve the accuracy ofthe predicted effectiveness. Thus, the predicted effectiveness of amedication may depend on the patient, and as such a medication'spredicted effectiveness may be personalized to each patient according totheir specific traits and characteristics.

However, the inventors herein have recognized issues with the previousattempts to address the lack of transparency in the process of selectingmedications. Specifically, previous attempts to increase thetransparency of medication options only partially solve the issuesdescribed above. For example, US patent application 2014/0,244,292 onlyallows a patient to compare treatment options by their predictedeffectiveness. Thus, only being able to compare treatment options bytheir effectiveness, may lead to a confusing and time consumingtreatment selection process.

The inventors herein have recognized the issues described above and havedevised systems and methods for addressing the issues. In particular,systems and methods for a transparent healthcare platform and userinterface are provided. More specifically, the methods and systemsdescribed herein, provide an approach for integrating crucial andrelevant information about medication options such as theireffectiveness, cost, user reviews and comments, etc., and then compilesthat information for a list of medications into one integrative display.

The present invention provides, among other advantages, methods andsystems for helping patients find, select, compare, and purchasemedications. In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving userinformation including one or more characteristics of a user from aremote user device, responsive to a query from the user via the userdevice, receiving a list of one or more medications identified from astorage device, receiving medication information about each identifiedmedication in the list of the one or more medications from the storagedevice, wherein the received medication information includes one or moreof an indication of the clinical effectiveness of the identifiedmedications, prescription experience data characterizing experiences ofpatients with the identified medications, cost information, insurancecoverage, care provider recommendations, and secondary technicaleffects, calculating a user personalized grade for each of theidentified medications based on the medication information and the userinformation, transmitting the user personalized grade and medicationinformation to the user device, and displaying simultaneously on theuser device, the user personalized grade, cost, prescription experiencedata, and secondary technical effects of each identified medication.

In this way, a healthcare platform is provided that allows patients tosearch for, compare, select, and purchase medication all from onedevice. Thus, the efficiency of the process of selecting and purchasinga medication may be improved in two ways. First, because of theincreased transparency of the medication options available to thepatient, a patient may spend less money and experience improved resultsfrom their medications. Second the amount of time a patient may spendselecting a medication may be decreased due to the research, selection,and purchasing processes all being combined into one integrativeprocess. Further, the safety of a patient may be improved due to thehealthcare platform providing a patient-care provider integratednetwork. The patient profile including all of the patient's currentmedication may be monitored by the patient's care provider to ensurethat any health risks associated with one or more of the medication maybe avoided.

The above summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the subject matter, nor is it intended to be usedto limit the scope of the subject matter. Furthermore, the subjectmatter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all of thedisadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows a high-level illustration of an example online health careplatform.

FIG. 2A illustrates an overview of an exemplary computing environmentaccording to an embodiment.

FIG. 2B illustrates another example computing environment.

FIG. 3A shows a flow chart of an example method for appraisingmedications.

FIG. 3B shows a continuation of the example method for appraisingmedications from FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4A shows a flow chart of an example method for appraising anindividual medical study.

FIG. 4B shows a continuation of the example method for appraising anindividual medical study from FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5 shows a flow chart of an example method for appraising ameta-analysis medical study.

FIG. 6 shows a flow chart of an example method for appraising amedication in treating a particular medical condition.

FIG. 7 shows a flow chart of a method for displaying various medicationoptions to a user.

FIG. 8A illustrates an example online health care platform interface fora user.

FIG. 8B illustrates an example online health care platform interface fora user.

FIG. 8C illustrates an example online health care platform interface fora user.

FIG. 8D illustrates an example online health care platform interface fora user.

FIG. 8E illustrates an example online health care platform interface fora user.

FIG. 8F illustrates an example online health care platform interface fora user.

FIG. 8G illustrates an example online health care platform interface fora user.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description relates to systems and methods for improvingthe transparency of the medication selection process. When selecting amedication, a user may access a healthcare platform through a userdevice such as a phone, tablet, computer, etc., as shown in FIG. 2 . Thehealthcare platform may include a server in wireless communication withthe user device as shown in FIG. 1 , which may allow a user, to searchfor, compare, and purchase medications. A user may input medical andnon-medical information into a user profile via the user device.Non-medical information may include a user's preferences, hobbies,interests, lifestyle, work conditions, etc. A user's profile informationmay be stored on the server in wireless communication with the userdevice. When searching for a medication, a user may first search formedications on their user device via a search display screen such asthat shown in FIG. 8A. The server may contain a logic subsystem whichmay be configured to perform a method such as the example method ofFIGS. 3A and 3B, to carry out the medication search requested by theuser. Specifically, the server may search from one or more databases onone or more remote servers for information regarding medications used totreat the user's medical condition. Specifically, the method may includesearching and evaluating scientific literature such as clinical studiesinvolving a particular medication. As described in the example methodsof FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 5 , the results from the scientific literature, andthe accuracy of those results may be assessed to determine the relevancyand importance of the study results. Based on the results of thestudies, a user personalized grade may then be assigned to themedication as described in the example method shown in FIG. 6 , whichmay be based both on the scientific studies and the information storedin the user's profile. The user personalized grade a medication receivesmay be indicative of its predicted effectiveness in treating the medicalcondition, as well as its safety concerns, and health risks. Otherinformation regarding the medication may also be gathered such as thepredicted cost, side effects, care provider recommendations, and userreviews of the medication. After gathering and analyzing relevantinformation relating to one or more medications, the medicationinformation may be presented to a user, as described in the examplemethod shown in FIG. 7 .

In response to the user request for a medication search, a list ofmedications used to treat the user's medical condition may be provided.Medications may be displayed to a user via a user interface on the userdevice such as a touch screen, LCD screen, etc. As shown in FIGS. 8B,8F, and 8G the display may include relevant information about eachmedication option such as its user personalized grade, cost factor,prescription evidence data, and secondary technical effects. Thus, theuser may be able to compare various medications based on their cost,effectiveness, user reviews, side effects, etc. The user may then beable to quickly narrow down their search to a subset of the initiallypresented medications. After selecting a subset of the initiallypresented medications, the user may be presented with a display whichallows for the comparison of the user selected medications as shown inthe example display of FIG. 8C. After further narrowing their search, auser may select a single medication and receive even more informationabout the medication, such as links to the scientific literature used toestimate the effectiveness of the medication as shown in FIG. 8D.

A user and a user's care provider may have access to the user's profilethrough the healthcare platform. A care provider may include a user'smedical doctor, specialist, nurse practitioner, physician's assistant,etc. The user profile, may contain current information about the user'smedications as shown in FIG. 8E. A user may be provided with a list ofcurrent medications, the cost of each medication, an intended use foreach medication, and an overall estimated cost for all currentmedications. The user's care provider may intervene and notify the userif one or more of the medications pose a serious health risk to theuser.

As such, the systems and methods provided herein may provide additionaladvantages to previous attempts to address the transparency of themedication selection process. First, the effectiveness of medicationsfor users may be increased while at the same time the cost may bedecreased. Second, due the improved transparency of the user interfaceused for selecting medications, the time a user spends selecting andpurchasing a medication may be reduced. Third, the safety and health ofa user may be increased by providing intervention strategies when a userselects a medication that could pose a serious health risk.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a high-level representation of ahealthcare platform. The healthcare platform comprises a system forevaluating medication options via an interactive software environment tohelp users make informed healthcare decisions. Thus, the healthcareplatform may increase the transparency of healthcare options availableto users. Additionally, the healthcare platform may synchronize theentire process of researching, selecting, and purchasing medicationsinto a single user interface. In other words, users may search, compare,and purchase medications all on one health platform. Further, user maycompare medications by what factor is most important to them in amedication: its cost, effectiveness, side effects, etc.

An example health platform 100, shown in FIG. 1 , may comprise ainformation and evaluation platform 102, a Consumer Reports stylemedication report site and/or application 104, condition specific onlineapplications 116, a benefits and/or plan design 114, interventionprograms 108, and an electronic medical records (EMR) based integrationinto physician workflow component 112. For example, a user may firstsearch for medications based on their specific condition on thecondition specific online application or site 116. Next, after theplatform 102 gathers and evaluates information relating to themedications associated with the user's conditions, users may bepresented the various medication options and a side-by-side comparisontool 106 for comparing and evaluating the medication options.Information pertaining to the medication options, such as their costfactor, user personalized grade, secondary technical effects, careprovider recommendations, prescription experience data, etc., may bepresented side-by-side to the user on a single interface.

For the purposes of simplifying terms used in this disclosure, a costfactor may relate to an estimated cost of a medication. The cost factormay be the estimated cost of a medication before a deductible. Inanother example, the cost factor may be the estimated cost of amedication after a deductible. In other examples, the cost factor maynot be the exact cost of the medication to the user out of pocket.Secondary technical effects of a medication may include side effects ofthe medication as determined based on scientific research and literatureof studies of the medication. Prescription experience data may includecomments, reviews, and other forms of feedback from other users and/orpatients who had previous experience with the medication. The userpersonalized grade may be a user personalized grade calculated for amedication based on both scientific literature and user information aswill be explained in greater detail in the methods below with referenceto FIGS. 3-6 .

Further, the benefits and or plan design 114 may allow a user to selecta medication and obtain information about its cost, both before andafter a deductible. As will be explained in greater detail below withreference to FIG. 8G, if a user chooses a medication that may be ahealth risk to the user, the user may be sent a message explaining thepotential heal risks associated with taking the chosen medication. Inanother example, the healthcare platform 100 may prevent a user frompurchasing a medication that poses more than a threshold amount ofhealth risk to the user.

As part of the intervention programs 108, a patient profile 110 may bepresented to the user displaying their medications, their costs, andtheir risk factors. If it is determined by the platform 102 that one ormore of the medications taken by the patient poses more than a thresholdamount of risk to the patient, the patient may be alerted.

Thus, platform 100 may allow users to more easily sort through andevaluate their medication options, due to the increased transparency andfunctionality of the platform 100. Specifically, and as elaborated ingreater detail below with reference to FIGS. 8B-8G, users may comparemedication by an assigned user personalized grade. In one example theuser personalized grade may be a letter grade such as “A,” “B,” “C,”etc. In another example, the user personalized grade may be a number ona particular scale (e.g., a number from 1 to 10). The user personalizedgrade may be based on evidence of the efficacy and safety of themedication as reported in peer reviewed literature and informationprovided to the FDA. In one example, links to the peer reviewedliterature may be provided to the user. User reviews such as individualuser feedback on their unique experience with medications may beaggregated to provide a crowd-sourced rating. Additionally, a user'scare provider database may be updated to provide a current list of allmedications the user is taking. Users may therefore be provided with amore efficient means for comparing and evaluating their medicationoptions. Further, the safety and efficacy of medications in treatingmedical conditions may be improved while at the same time the cost tothe user may be reduced.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example computing environment 200 in accordancewith the current disclosure. In particular, computing environment 200includes a server 202, a user device 222, a remote server 232, andnetworks 213 and 217. However, not all of the components illustrated maybe required to practice the invention. Variations in the arrangement andtype of the components may be made without departing from the spirit orscope of the invention.

Server 202 may be a computing device configured to: generate a userpersonalized grade for a medication, and calculate medication costs fromclaims data. In one example, the user personalized grade may be relatedto the predicted effectiveness of the medication. Further the userpersonalized grade may be based on one or more of available scientificresearch, clinical studies, patient reviews, care providerrecommendations, etc. In different embodiments, server 202 may take theform of a mainframe computer, server computer, desktop computer, laptopcomputer, tablet computer, home entertainment computer, networkcomputing device, mobile computing device, mobile communication device,gaming device, etc.

Server 202 includes a logic subsystem 203 and a data-holding subsystem204. Server 202 may optionally include a display subsystem 205,communication subsystem 206, and/or other components not shown in FIG.2A. For example, server 202 may also optionally include user inputdevices such as keyboards, mice, game controllers, cameras, microphones,and/or touch screens.

Logic subsystem 203 may include one or more physical devices configuredto execute one or more instructions. For example, logic subsystem 203may be configured to execute one or more instructions that are part ofone or more applications, services, programs, routines, libraries,objects, components, data structures, or other logical constructs. Suchinstructions may be implemented to perform a task, implement a datatype, transform the state of one or more devices, or otherwise arrive ata desired result.

Logic subsystem 203 may include one or more processors that areconfigured to execute software instructions. Additionally oralternatively, the logic subsystem 203 may include one or more hardwareor firmware logic machines configured to execute hardware or firmwareinstructions. Processors of the logic subsystem 203 may be single ormulti-core, and the programs executed thereon may be configured forparallel or distributed processing. The logic subsystem 203 mayoptionally include individual components that are distributed throughouttwo or more devices, which may be remotely located and/or configured forcoordinated processing. For example, the logic subsystem 203 may includeseveral engines for processing and analyzing data. These engines mayinclude a test evaluator engine, user comment engine, user reviewengine, user feedback engine, etc. These engines may be wirelesslyconnected to one or more databases for processing data from thedatabases. One or more aspects of the logic subsystem 203 may bevirtualized and executed by remotely accessible networked computingdevices configured in a cloud computing configuration.

Data-holding subsystem 204 may include one or more physical,non-transitory devices configured to hold data and/or instructionsexecutable by the logic subsystem 203 to implement the herein describedmethods and processes. When such methods and processes are implemented,the state of data-holding subsystem 204 may be transformed (for example,to hold different data).

Data-holding subsystem 204 may include removable media and/or built-indevices. Data-holding subsystem 204 may include optical memory (forexample, CD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray Disc, etc.), and/or magnetic memorydevices (for example, hard drive disk, floppy disk drive, tape drive,MRAM, etc.), and the like. Data-holding subsystem 204 may includedevices with one or more of the following characteristics: volatile,nonvolatile, dynamic, static, read/write, read-only, random access,sequential access, location addressable, file addressable, and contentaddressable. In some embodiments, logic subsystem 203 and data-holdingsubsystem 204 may be integrated into one or more common devices, such asan application-specific integrated circuit or a system on a chip.

It is to be appreciated that data-holding subsystem 204 includes one ormore physical, non-transitory devices. In contrast, in some embodimentsaspects of the instructions described herein may be propagated in atransitory fashion by a pure signal (for example, an electromagneticsignal) that is not held by a physical device for at least a finiteduration. Furthermore, data and/or other forms of information pertainingto the present disclosure may be propagated by a pure signal.

When included, display subsystem 205 may be used to present a visualrepresentation of data held by data-holding subsystem 204. As the hereindescribed methods and processes change the data held by the data-holdingsubsystem 204, and thus transform the state of the data-holdingsubsystem 204, the state of display subsystem 205 may likewise betransformed to visually represent changes in the underlying data.Display subsystem 205 may include one or more display devices utilizingvirtually any type of technology. Such display devices may be combinedwith logic subsystem 203 and/or data-holding subsystem 204 in a sharedenclosure, or such display devices may be peripheral display devices.

When included, communication subsystem 206 may be configured tocommunicatively couple server 202 with one or more other computingdevices, such as user device 222 and/or remote server 232. Communicationsubsystem 206 may include wired and/or wireless communication devicescompatible with one or more different communication protocols. Asnon-limiting examples, communication subsystem 206 may be configured forcommunication via a wireless telephone network, a wireless local areanetwork, a wired local area network, a wireless wide area network, awired wide area network, etc. In some embodiments, communicationsubsystem 206 may allow server 202 to send and/or receive messages toand/or from other devices via a network such as the public Internet. Forexample, communication subsystem 206 may communicatively couple server202 with user device 222 via network 213 and/or server 232 via network217. In some examples, network 213 may be the public Internet.Furthermore, network 217 may be regarded as a private network connectionand may include, for example, a virtual private network or an encryptionor other security mechanism employed over the public Internet. In someexamples, network 213 and network 217 may be the same network.

Computing environment 200 may include one or more devices operated byusers, such as user device 222. User device 222 may be any computingdevice configured to access a network such as network 213, including butnot limited to a personal computer, a laptop, a smartphone, a tablet,and the like.

User device 222 includes a logic subsystem 223 and a data-holdingsubsystem 224. User device 222 may optionally include a displaysubsystem 225, communication subsystem 226, and/or other components notshown in FIG. 2A. For example, user device 222 may also optionallyinclude user input devices such as keyboards, mice, game controllers,cameras, microphones, and/or touch screens.

Logic subsystem 223 may include one or more physical devices configuredto execute one or more instructions. For example, logic subsystem 223may be configured to execute one or more instructions that are part ofone or more applications, services, programs, routines, libraries,objects, components, data structures, or other logical constructs. Suchinstructions may be implemented to perform a task, implement a datatype, transform the state of one or more devices, or otherwise arrive ata desired result.

Logic subsystem 223 may include one or more processors that areconfigured to execute software instructions. Additionally oralternatively, the logic subsystem 223 may include one or more hardwareor firmware logic machines configured to execute hardware or firmwareinstructions. Processors of the logic subsystem 223 may be single ormulti-core, and the programs executed thereon may be configured forparallel or distributed processing. The logic subsystem 223 mayoptionally include individual components that are distributed throughouttwo or more devices, which may be remotely located and/or configured forcoordinated processing. One or more aspects of the logic subsystem 223may be virtualized and executed by remotely accessible networkingcomputing devices configured in a cloud computing configuration.

Data-holding subsystem 224 may include one or more physical,non-transitory devices configured to hold data and/or instructionsexecutable by the logic subsystem 223 to implement the herein describedmethods and processes. When such methods and processes are implemented,the state of data-holding subsystem 224 may be transformed (for example,to hold different data).

Data-holding subsystem 224 may include removable media and/or built-indevices. Data-holding subsystem 224 may include optical memory (forexample, CD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray Disc, etc.), and/or magnetic memorydevices (for example, hard drive disk, floppy disk drive, tape drive,MRAM, etc.), and the like. Data-holding subsystem 224 may includedevices with one or more of the following characteristics: volatile,nonvolatile, dynamic, static, read/write, read-only, random access,sequential access, location addressable, file addressable, and contentaddressable. In some embodiments, logic subsystem 223 and data-holdingsubsystem 224 may be integrated into one or more common devices, such asan application-specific integrated circuit or a system on a chip.

When included, display subsystem 225 may be used to present a visualrepresentation of data held by data-holding subsystem 224. As the hereindescribed methods and processes change the data held by the data-holdingsubsystem 224, and thus transform the state of the data-holdingsubsystem 224, the state of display subsystem 225 may likewise betransformed to visually represent changes in the underlying data.Display subsystem 225 may include one or more display devices utilizingvirtually any type of technology. Such display devices may be combinedwith logic subsystem 223 and/or data-holding subsystem 224 in a sharedenclosure, or such display devices may be peripheral display devices.

When included, communication subsystem 226 may be configured tocommunicatively couple user device 222 with one or more other computingdevices, such as server 202. Communication subsystem 226 may includewired and/or wireless communication devices compatible with one or moredifferent communication protocols. As non-limiting examples,communication subsystem 226 may be configured for communication via awireless telephone network, a wireless local area network, a wired localarea network, a wireless wide area network, a wired wide area network,etc. In some embodiments, communication subsystem 226 may allow userdevice 222 to send and/or receive messages to and/or from other devices,such as server 202, via a network 213 such as the public Internet.

Similarly, remote server 232 may comprise a computing devicecommunicatively coupled to server 202 via network 217. In some examples,the remote server 232 may include a plurality of remote servers, such asa claims server, medical database server, pharmacy server, etc., allcoupled to server 202 via network 217. The one or more remote serversincluded in remote server 232 may each include one or more databases233. Thus, in one example, remote server 232, may include one or moreservers that contain one or more databases with raw medical data, wherethe raw medical data may include information regarding health caretreatments, services, costs, and so on.

The remote server 232 may include a plurality of databases. For example,the remote server 232 may include one or more medication informationdatabases 233, and a patient profile database 234. The patient profiledatabase 234 may include information about a patient. Specifically, apatient may input their patient characteristics, information,preferences, medical history, etc., via the user device 222, and theirinformation may be stored in the patient profile database 234 of theremote server 232.

Further, the medication databases 233 may include information aboutmedications such as their cost, effectiveness, risk factors, etc. Thus,the medication databases 233 may include one or more of a medicationdatabase, clinical effectiveness database, user review database, costdatabase, risk database, etc.

Additionally, remote server 232 may include one or more study resultdatabase servers that contain one or more study result databases withraw scientific data, clinical study data, medical report data, publishedscientific study data, etc., which may include information regarding theeffectiveness of health care treatments including, but not limited to,prescriptions medications, secondary technical effects of thosemedication, etc. The remote server 232 may further include one or morepharmacy servers that contain one or more claims databases with rawpatient data, raw claims data, and so on. The remote server mayadditionally include one or more servers containing one or more patientexperience databases with patient feedback and reviews for one or moremedications. Thus the remote server 232 may include one or more serverseach containing one or more databases that include information relatingto scientific evidence and research on a plurality of health caretreatments, the cost of said treatments, patient and user reviews ofsaid treatments, side effects of said treatments, etc.

Thus server 202, user device 222, and remote server 232 may eachrepresent computing devices which may generally include any device thatis configured to perform computation and that is capable of sending andreceiving data communications by way of one or more wired and/orwireless communication interfaces. Such devices may be configured tocommunicate using any of a variety of network protocols. For example,user device 222 may be configured to execute a browser application thatemploys HTTP to request information from server 202 and then displaysthe retrieved information to a user on a display. Example interfacesthat may be delivered to user device 222 from server 202 in such amanner and displayed, for example, on display subsystem 225 aredescribed further herein and with regard to FIGS. 8A-8G.

Server 202 may collect and process data from remote server 232 and fromuser device 222. A user may input personal information to the userdevice 222 such as their age, gender, ethnicity, etc., and anypreferences they may have pertaining to medication options such as cost,side effects, accessibility, effectiveness, etc., of said medicationoptions. User information may be transferred to server 202 via network213, and may be stored in the data-holding subsystem 204 of the server202. As explained above, in other examples, the user information may bestored in the patient profile database 234 of the remote server 232.

Server 202 may analyze the user information collected from user device222 and/or patient profile database 234 of remote server 232, andmedication information collected from the one or more medicationinformation databases of remote server 232 using, for example, dataanalysis techniques and/or artificial intelligence techniques. Forexample, data collected from the one or more databases in remote server232 may be analyzed to determine certain aspects of a particularmedication, which may include one or more of the cost for themedication, a score for the medication, the effectiveness of themedication in treating a condition, etc. In one example, the userpersonalized grade of the medication may be based on data retrieved fromthe study result database. The personalized user personalized grade ofthe medication may be based on the effectiveness of the medication intreating a particular medical condition. The effectiveness may be basedon scientific, clinical, and or medical studies, medical doctorrecommendations, and user reviews. As such, the test evaluator enginemay retrieve information regarding a medication from one or moredatabases such as the study result database, and manipulate and evaluatethe data together with the information obtained about the user from theuser profile, to calculate a user personalized grade for the medication.

In other examples, the user personalized grade may alternatively oradditionally be based on side effects of the medication, cost of themedication, user reviews of the medication, etc. In still furtherexamples, the medication score may be based on one or more of acombination of the aforementioned parameters. The data received from theremote server 232 to determine a score of the medication may be datacollected from patients as part of a scientific, clinical, and/ormedical study. Additionally, the data used to determine the score of amedication may be data collected from any person taking the particularmedication and submitting feedback either via the Internet, or writtencorrespondence. Further, server 202 may estimate the cost of aparticular medication, or healthcare treatment based on collected datafrom the remote server 232 pertaining to medical claims.

However, aspects of a particular medication may not be the same for allusers, and may be different depending on the user. As an example, thecost of a particular medication to a user may depend on the user'sinsurance. As another example, the effectiveness of a medication maydepend on the user's characteristics, traits, and preferences. A givenmedication may be more effective for males than females, or for ages 50and above than 30 and under, etc. Thus, when analyzing the medicationinformation collected from the one or more medication informationdatabases 233 of remote server 232, server 202 may determine theeffectiveness, score, and cost of a particular medication, based on theuser information collected from user device 222 and/or patient profiledatabase 234 of remote server 232. As a result, analysis of medicationinformation may be personalized for each user as will be elaboratedbelow with reference to FIGS. 3A-3B. Thus, by taking into accountvarious characteristics of a particular user, the accuracy of medicationand healthcare information presented to the user may be increased. Saidanother way, using information provided by the user via user device 222may be used to increase the accuracy of the score, effectiveness, cost,etc., of a medication for a particular user. Systems and methods fordetermining medication scores and effectiveness are described furtherherein with regard to FIGS. 3A-7 .

Analysis of medication data may further provide an overview of servicesand costs associated with particular health conditions and treatmentsfor similar users. Various factors such as the insurance coverage,deductible, benefits, etc., may be used in determining the cost of amedication to a particular patient or user. Server 202 may include oneor more databases 212 in data-holding subsystem 204 for storingprocessed claims data, and processed medication score data. As such,server 202 may be capable of processing claims and executing purchasesof medication responsive to input from the user device 222. Thus, remoteserver 232 may include one or more servers and/or databases linked toone or more financial institutions, pharmacies, insurance companies,care providers, etc. As such, server 202, may be able to processpurchase requests, payments and claims responsive to a user inputthrough user device 222.

FIG. 2B shows another embodiment of a computing environment 250 that maybe used in accordance with the present disclosure. Specifically,computing environment 250 may be an example computing environment ofcomputing environment 200 from FIG. 2A.

At 252, a user may input information into the computing environment 200.Specifically, at 252, a user may provide information to a server (e.g.,server 202 from FIG. 2A) via a user interface and network connection(e.g., network connection 213 from FIG. 2A). The user input may includeinformation and preferences pertaining to the user. In one example, theuser input may include general personal and medical information aboutthe user, such as medication the user is currently taking, past and/orcurrent medical conditions, medical history, gender, age, ethnicity,medication usage, travel history, etc. In other examples, the user mayadditionally or alternatively input non-medical information such aspreferences, hobbies, interests, lifestyle, work conditions, etc. Insome examples, the user preferences may include preferences regardingthe selection of medications, such as the relative importance of thecost, effectiveness, side effects, etc., of various medication options.Thus, in some examples at 304, the user may update information in theirpatient profile pertaining to their current living and medicalconditions. However, in other examples, a user may input informationregarding a new medical condition, and may further request informationabout potential medications to treat said condition.

At 254, information input by the user at 252 may be stored in a patientprofile. In one example, the patient profile may be stored in adata-holding system (e.g., data-holding subsystem 204 from FIG. 2A).Thus, a user may access and update their patient profile through thenetwork connection. Additionally a user may input a new condition andrequest for information regarding medications used in treating saidcondition.

At 256, a server, (e.g., server 202 from FIG. 2A) may generate amedication review that includes one or more of a user personalizedgrade, cost, safety information, user review, and care providerrecommendations of various medications. In one example, the medicationreview generated at 256 may pertain to specific medical condition inputby the user at 252. As such, the medication review may include a reviewof medication used in treating a particular medical condition. Forexample, if a user requests information about medication options forspecific condition at 252, the computing environment 250 may generatethe medication review at 256 specifically for medications pertaining tothe user's condition. In another example, the computing environment 250may generate a medication review for any medical condition the userinputs at 252. Thus, even if a user does not request for a medicationreview at 252, the computing environment may automatically generate amedication review for any and all conditions input and/or stored in thepatient profile.

To generate the medication review at 256, the server may communicatewith one or more databases 258 (e.g., databases 233 from FIG. 2A) via anetwork connection (e.g., network 217 from FIG. 2A). The databases maybe included in one or more remote servers (e.g., remote server 232 fromFIG. 2A). The databases may comprise one or more of a medicationsdatabase 260, conditions database 262, community database 264, andstudies database 266. The medication database 260, may includeinformation regarding medications that are available on a healthcaremarketplace. These medications in the medication database 260 mayinclude over-the-counter medication and prescription medications. Theconditions database 262 may include a list and information regardingknown medical conditions, such as diseases, cancers, infections, etc.The community database 264 may include reviews of medications frompatients, and other users of said medications. The studies database 266may include information from peer reviewed and published literature.Specifically, the studies database 266 may include information andresults from clinical studies, reporting the efficacy of one or moremedications in treating a particular medical condition. As will beexplained in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 3-7 , the computingenvironment 250, may use information gathered from the one or moredatabases 258 to generate the medication review at 256.

Thus, a server, in communication with one or more remote servers, eachhaving one or more databases, may collect information regarding acondition and medications for treating said medical condition togenerate a review for said medication. The server may contain one ormore engines with micro-chip processors for analyzing the data receivedfrom the one or more databases. For example, the server may comprise atest evaluator engine for generating the user personalized grade foreach medication. The server may additionally comprise one or more of auser comment engine, user review engine, secondary technical effectdatabase, etc. In some examples, the medication review may be stored ina server at 256. In other examples, the medication review may bepresented to a user via a user interface. In still further examples, themedication review may be presented to a user via a request from the uservia a user interface.

FIGS. 3-6 show several methods for evaluating the effectiveness andsafety of a medication in treating a particular medical condition. Assuch, methods 3-6 may be executed by a computer and/or server with alogic system capable of executing computer readable instructions such asserver 202 described above with reference to FIG. 2A. Thus, in oneembodiment, the methods described below in FIGS. 3-6 may be executed bythe server (e.g., server 202 from FIG. 2A), the server being part of awirelessly connected computing environment (e.g., computing environment200 from FIG. 2A). The methods may include searching a database ofscientific literature (e.g., databases 233 from FIG. 2A) for studiesspecifically concerning the medication. In one example the medicationmay be medication used in treating a medical condition input by a uservia a user device (e.g., user device 222 from FIG. 2A). Thus, one ormore of the methods in FIGS. 3-6 may be employed in response to arequest from a user via the user device to search for medication used totreat a particular medical condition. As such, the methods in FIGS. 3-6may be used to evaluate the effectiveness, safety, risks, etc., of aparticular medication in treating a given medical condition. FIGS. 3A-3Bshow a method for grading a medication based on evaluating one or morepieces of scientific literature. Various subroutines of the methoddescribed in FIGS. 3A-3B may be executed in the method described inFIGS. 4-6 . Specifically, the method shown in FIGS. 3A-3B, may includeevaluating the confidence of the results of one or more studiesinvolving a medication, which may be described in greater detail in themethods included in FIGS. 4 and 5 . Further, the method shown in FIGS.3A-3B may include assigning a user personalized grade to a medicationbased on its effectiveness, safety, health risks, etc. FIG. 6 mayinclude an example method for assigning a user personalized grade to amedication.

FIGS. 3A-3B shows a flow chart of an example method 300 for evaluating amedication. Specifically, method 300 may comprise grading medicationsbased on available scientific literature. The scientific literature mayinclude clinical studies, meta-analyses, systematic reviews of clinicalstudies, research studies, peer reviewed literature, FDA approvedstudies, etc. In other words, method 300 may involve determining theefficacy of a medication in treating a particular medical condition.Specifically, a user personalized grade may be assigned to a medication,the user personalized grade being indicative of the effectiveness of themedication in treating a particular medication. In other examples,method 300 may comprise updating the user personalized grade assigned toa particular medication based on new available scientific literature.Thus, method 300 may involve grading various medications used to treatthe same medical condition. The user personalized grades assigned to themedication may allow for improved transparency and ease of comparisonbetween different medication options. Further, the user personalizedgrade assigned to a medication may be based on its predictedeffectiveness in a patient based on information about that patient.Thus, the user personalized grade assigned to a given medication may bedifferent depending on the patient and their specific personal, medical,and non-medical information. As such, method 300 allows for improvedaccuracy of the predicted effectiveness of a medication in treating amedical condition. Said another way, the predicted user personalizedgrade and/or effectiveness of a medication may be user-specific to offerimproved medication suggestions. It is important to note that method 300may be executed in response to a request from a user. For example, auser may input a search for a particular medical condition on a userdevice (e.g., user device 222 from FIG. 2A). In response to the requestfrom the user, a server (e.g., server 202 from FIG. 2A) in communicationwith the user device via a network (e.g., network 213) may executemethod 300. Thus, method 300 may additionally include assigning userpersonalized grades to various medications used to treat a particularmedical condition input by a user.

Instructions for carrying out method 300 may be stored in the memory ofa computer and/or server (e.g., data holding subsystem 204 of server 202from FIG. 2A). As such, method 300 may be carried out by a logic system(e.g., logic subsystem 203 from FIG. 2A) of the computer and/or server.

Method 300 begins at 302 by searching for all new literature on aspecific medication. In one example, the method 300 at 302 may involvesearching all scientific literature for a specific medication. In otherexamples, the method 300 at 302 may only involve searching scientificliterature for a specific medication within a threshold amount of timefrom the current time (e.g., within the last one year, 5 years, 3months, etc.). The scientific literature may be drawn from one or moredata-holding systems or study result databases (e.g., databases 233 fromFIG. 2A). It is important to note that method 300 may repeat itselfmultiple times. In other examples it may run continuously. As such thesearching for scientific literature may comprise only searching forscientific literature within a time period, the time period dictated bythe time since the most recent search. As such, the method 300 at 302may only search for scientific literature published since the mostrecent execution of method 300 for the given specific medication. In thefollowing description, a piece of scientific literature may also beherein referred to as a study.

Continuing to 304, the method 300 may involve determining if thescientific literature uncovered at 302 is a regulatory report. If thescientific literature pertaining to the specific medication is aregulatory report, method 300 may proceed to 306 and determine if thereis a safety concern with the medication. A safety concern may include apotential health risks, negative side effects, addictiveness of themedication, etc. In response to determine that there are no safetyconcerns with the medication at 306, the method 300 may return. However,if at 306, a safety concern with the medication is identified, method300 may then record the safety information of the medication at 308.Then, method 300 may continue to FIG. 3B, specifically to 326 of method300.

Returning to 304 of method 300, if it is determined that the literatureis not a regulatory report, method 300 may proceed to 310 and determineif the study relates to a particular medical condition. The medicalcondition may be a medical condition input by the user via the userdevice. Thus, the method at 300 may determine if a particular piece ofscientific literature (e.g., clinical study, FDA approved study, etc.)relates to a search of a specific medical condition by a user. As anexample, if a user inputs high cholesterol as a medical condition, themethod 300 may determine at 310, if a piece of scientific literaturerelates to a study involving reducing high cholesterol levels. If theliterature does not relate to the medical condition at 310, then themethod returns. However, if the literature does relate to the medicalcondition at 310, the method 300 may continue to 312.

At 312, the method 300 may comprise determining if the study relates toa user profile such as the user profile described above with referenceto FIG. 2B. The user profile may include information such as the age,gender, ethnicity, medical history, etc., of a patient (user). Thus, themethod 300 at 312 may include determining if a threshold number ofpatients in the study share one or more common characteristics with theuser. In one example the threshold may be a threshold number ofpatients. In another example, the threshold may be a threshold percentof patients. As an example, it may be determined if the thresholdpercent of the patients in the study were of a similar age and gender tothe current user. In other examples, the common shared characteristicsbetween patients in the study and the user, used to determine if thestudy relates to the user may include shared medical histories, othermedical conditions and medications used to treat those medicalconditions, preferences, etc. If the study does not relate to the userprofile, the method 300 then returns.

However if at 312, it is determined that the study does relate to theuser profile, then method 300 may continue to 314 and determine if thestudy has a minimum number of participants. The minimum number ofparticipants may be a fixed number of participants, below which theresults of a study may be considered incomplete or invalid. In otherwords, the minimum number of participants may represent a thresholdnumber of participants that may be sufficient to consider the results ofa study significant. If the study does not have the minimum number ofparticipants, then the method 300 may return. However, if the study doeshave at least the minimum number of participants, method 300 maycontinue to 316 and determine if the study meets clinical standards.

The clinical standards may include FDA approved studies, standards, andprotocols. If the study does not meet the clinical standards at 316,method 300 may then return. However, if it is determined at 316 that thestudy meets the clinical standards at 316, then the method may continueto 318 and determine if the study outcomes have measurable results. Saidanother way, the method 300 at 318 may include determining if the studytested quantifiable variables. Thus a study outcome may have measurableresults if the effects of a medication can be directly measured. As anexample, a quantifiable variable may include blood pressure, heart rate,etc. In other examples, the method at 318 may additionally includedetermining if the medication in the study produced significant resultsin the patients of the study. Thus, the method at 318 may includedetermining if a particular medication helped treat a medical condition,or if it had little to no effect.

If it is determined that the study does not have measurable results,then method 300 may return. However, if it is determined at 318 that thestudy does have measurable results, then method 300 may continue to 320and it may be determined if the scientific literature is a singleclinical trial study. If the scientific literature is a single clinicaltrial, the method may continue to 323 and appraise the study usingsingle clinical trial standards. The single clinical trial standards maybe described in greater detail below with reference to FIG. 5 . If it isdetermined at 320 that the literature is not a single clinical trial,then method 300 may continue to 324 and appraise the literature using ameta-study standard. The meta-analysis study standards may be describedin greater detail below with reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B. Method 300may then proceed from either 324 or 323 to 326 and record the studyresults. The method 300 at 326 may include storing the results of thestudy in a data-holding system (e.g., data-holding subsystem 204 fromFIG. 2A). Method 300 may then continue to on to 328 in FIG. 3B. Method300 may repeat multiple times, and as such may evaluate a plurality ofscientific literature pertaining to single medication. Thus, afterseveral iteration of method 300 for a given medication, the results ofmore than one study may be stored in the data-holding system.

Moving on to FIG. 3B, method 300 continues from 326 to 328 andcalculates a weighted score for the study. The weighted score may bebased on one or more of the effectiveness of the medication in treatingthe condition, the relative amount of similarity between the patients inthe study and the current user, the confidence of the results of thestudy which may be based on the number of participants, etc. In oneembodiment, the weighting may include assigning a higher weight to thestudy results from patients sharing similar characteristics with thecurrent patient. Thus, with increasing similarity (e.g., number ofshared characteristics) between a patient in the study and the currentpatient, the higher the results from that patient may be weightedrelative to other patient results. The shared characteristics mayinclude both medical and non-medical information as stored in the userprofile. After determining the weighted score for the study at 328,method 300 may then update the medication score using the weighted studyscore at 330. The score assigned to a medication may be based on severalstudies already stored in the data-holding system. Thus at 330, themethod may include updating the score assigned to a medication based onthe weighted score of the current study. In another example, if at 330,method 300 has not evaluated any scientific literature for theparticular medication/medication, then the weighted score may be used asthe medication score at 330.

After using the weighted study score to update the medication score at330, method 300 may continue to 332 and determine the effectiveness ofthe medication/medication using an aggregate score. The aggregate scoremay be based on the results from one or more studies stored in thedata-holding system at 326. Thus, the aggregate score for a medicationmay be computed based on combining results from a plurality of studies.As such, the aggregate score may be indicative of the effectiveness of amedication in treating a particular medical condition.

After determining the effectiveness of the medication at 332, method 300may continue to 334 and the certainty of the effectiveness may bedetermined. The certainty of the effectiveness may be based on thenumber of studies used to determine the effectiveness, the number ofparticipants in those studies, proportion of participants in thosestudies that share a common characteristic with the user, number ofshared characteristics with the user, etc. Said another way, thecertainty of the effectiveness may increase with increasing numbers ofstudies, participants in those studies, validity of study methodology,thoroughness of reporting of study methodology details, and sharedcharacteristics of patients in those studies with a user. The certaintymay be a confidence interval, which may contain the actual effectivenessof the medication.

Method 300 may then proceed from either 334 or from 308 in FIG. 3A to336 and the safety profile of the medication may be evaluated. Thesafety profile evaluation may include determining the side effects andhealth risks of taking the medication. Method 300 at 336 mayadditionally include determining the side effects and health risks oftaking the medication specifically for the user. As an example, if auser is taking another medication that may cause a potential health riskwhen taken in combination with the current medication, then a safetyconcern may be recorded. Thus, the method 300 at 336 may include usingthe patient profile information to determine health risks to the user intaking the medication.

After determining the safety profile of the medication, a userpersonalized grade for the medication specific to the condition and userpopulation may be assigned and/or modified. An example method forgrading a medication is shown below with reference to FIG. 6 . In oneexample, as shown in FIG. 6 , the user personalized grade assigned tothe medication may be a letter grade such as “A,” “B,” “C,” etc. Inanother example the user personalized grade assigned to the medicationbe a number on scale such as “3 out of 5”. In other examples the scalemay be a different metric comprising symbols, or objects, such as “3 outof 5 stars.” A user personalized grade may be assigned to the medicationif there is no existing user personalized grade for the medication. If auser personalized grade has already been assigned to the medication at338, then the user personalized grade may be modified to incorporate thenewly evaluated study. The user personalized grade assigned to themedication may be based on the effectiveness determined at 332, thecertainty of the effectiveness as determined at 334, the safety profileof the medication as determined at 336, the effectiveness of themedication amongst a subset of patients in the study sharing at least athreshold number of characteristics with the user, etc. Thus, the userpersonalized grade of a medication may match characteristics of the userto patients in the study sharing those characteristics. As such, resultsfrom those patients sharing more characteristics in common with the usermay be weighted more heavily when calculating the user personalizedgrade for that medication. As an example, if the overall effectivenessof a medication in treating a particular condition is at a lower firstlevel, but the effectiveness of that medication amongst a subset of thepatients sharing at least a threshold number of common characteristicwith the user is at a higher second level, the second level being higherand thus more effective than the first level, then the user personalizedgrade assigned to that medication may be increased. As describedearlier, the shared characteristics between a patient in the study andthe current patient/user may include both medical information andnon-medical information such as lifestyle, preferences, hobbies, workconditions, etc.

Method 300 may therefore search available scientific literature todetermine the effectiveness of that medication. Further, theeffectiveness may be based on characteristics of the user. Specifically,depending on characteristics of a user such as age, gender, existingmedical conditions and medications, etc., the predicted effectiveness ofa medication may be adjusted. Thus, the predicted effectiveness of amedication may be increased if a large number of participants in studiesinvolving that medication shared similar characteristics with the usersuch as similar age and/or gender. Therefore, the effectiveness of amedication may be based not only on the effectiveness of all patients inone or more studies, but may also be based on a subset of the patientsin those studies sharing one or more characteristics with a user. Thus,for increases in the overall effectiveness of the medication, number ofparticipants, number of studies, number of participants sharingcharacteristics with the user, number of shared characteristics with theuser, the predicted effectiveness of the medication may increase. As aresult the accuracy of the predicted effectiveness of a medication intreating a particular medical condition may be improved. Further, method300 may involve incorporating other factors besides the effectiveness ofthe medication into the user personalized grade it receives. Forexample, health risks, side effects, and other safety factors may beused to determine the user personalized grade assigned to a medication.

With regards to FIGS. 4A and 4B, they show a method 400 for appraisingan individual study using single clinical trial standards as describedabove at 323 with reference to method 300 in FIG. 3A. As such, method400 may be executed at 323 of method 300 and may be included withinmethod 300. Said another way, method 400 may be executed at 323 ofmethod 300. Instructions for carrying out method 400 may be stored inthe memory of a computer and/or server (e.g., data holding subsystem 204of server 202 from FIG. 2A). As such, method 400 may be carried out by alogic system (e.g., logic subsystem 203 from FIG. 2A) of the computerand/or server.

Method 400 begins at 402 by reviewing study elements to determine aconfidence interval for the study results. A confidence interval may beconstructed based on the distribution of the results from the study, thestandard deviation and mean of that distribution, etc. After determiningthe confidence interval at 402, method 400 proceeds to 404 and it isdetermined if the study is a retrospectively design trial. Aretrospectively design trial may be a case-control study in whichobservations about two different groups of patients are used to drawconclusions about what may be causing differences between the groups. Ifit is determined that the study is a retrospectively design trial, thenmethod 400 may proceed to 406 and the study may be assigned lowconfidence. Method 400 may then return. However, if the study is not aretrospectively design trial, then method 400 may continue to 408 and itmay be determined if there are endpoint concerns. Specifically, themethod at 408 may include determining if the results of the study couldhave happened by random chance, or if the confidence of the results isabove a threshold to directly infer a correlation and/or causationbetween the medication and effects of the medication in the study. Theendpoint concerns may comprise one or more of a correlate endpoint,subjective endpoint with lack of binding, inadequate binding.Additionally an endpoint concern may exist if an endpoint is definedpost-hoc, and/or if it is an inappropriate measurement. If endpointconcerns exist, method 400 may continue to 406 and assign a lowconfidence to the study results. The method may then return.

If the endpoint concerns are unknown, the method 400 may proceed to 410and record the endpoint concerns as a moderate concern. The endpointconcerns may be unknown if there are non-validated surrogate endpoints,and/or composite endpoints. Method 400 may then proceed to 412 fromeither 410, or from 408 if there are no endpoint concerns. At 412, themethod 400 may include determining if there are study populationconcerns. The study population concerns may include a misrepresentativesample population and/or if the population is inappropriate to theendpoints. If there are study population concerns, then method 400 maycontinue to 406 and assign a low confidence to the study results. Themethod may then return.

If the study population concerns are unknown, method 400 may continue to414 and record a moderate concern. The population concerns may beunknown if the population is poorly defined. Method 400 may then proceedto 416 from either 414, or from 412 if it is determined that there areno study population concerns. At 416, the method 400 may includedetermining if there are treatment concerns. Treatment concerns mayinclude, patients taking other medication that could confound results,the dosage and frequency of administration of the medication, etc. Thus,in one example if the dosing is inadequate, or if the medication istaken for an insufficient duration, then it may be determined that atreatment concern exists. If there are treatment concerns at 416, thenmethod 400 may continue to 406 and assign a low confidence to the studyresults. The method may then return. If treatment concerns are unknownat 416, then method 400 may proceed to 418 and record a moderate concernfor the study results. Treatment concerns may be unknown due to aninappropriate comparator. Method 400 may then proceed to 420 from either418, or from 416 if it is determined that there are no treatmentconcerns.

At 420, method 400 may include determining if the results can begeneralized. Determining if the results can be generalized may include,determining based on the sample size and diversity of the sample size ofthe patients in the study, if the results of the study can be applied toa much larger population of patients. If it is determined that theresults cannot be generalized at 420, then method 400 may proceed to 406and assign a low confidence to the study results. The method may thenreturn. If it is unknown whether the results can be generalized due toinsufficient information then method 400 may proceed 422 and record amoderate concern for the study results. Method 400 may then continuefrom either 422 or from 420 if it is determined that the study resultscan be generalized to 424. At 424, the method 400 may includedetermining if there are safety and/or adverse events concerns. If it isdetermined that the population analyzed in the study for safety wasincomplete or inappropriate, then it may be determined that there is asafety concern, and method 400 may continue to 406 and assign a lowconfidence to the study results. The method may then return. If theadverse events are not fully reported at 424, then method 400 mayproceed to 426 and record the lack of reporting as a moderate concern.

Method 400 may then proceed to 428 from either 426 or from 424 if it isdetermined that there are no safety concerns. At 428, method 400 mayinclude determining if there are intent to treat analysis concerns.Intent to treat analysis concerns may comprise failing to include apatient in data analysis regardless of that patient's adherence to aprotocol and/or study completion once that patient had been randomized.Analysis concerns may include a proportion of patients who completed thestudy, a proportion of patient assigned in a group for the primaryendpoint, difference between completion rates of different samplegroups, etc. If it is determined that there is an analysis concern at428, method 400 may proceed to 406 and assign a low confidence to thestudy results. The method may then return. An analysis concern may beidentified if one or more of the following are satisfied: less than anupper first threshold proportion of patients completed the study, lessthan a threshold proportion of patients were assigned to the group forthe primary endpoint, greater than a threshold difference in completionrates between two groups.

If it is determined that the proportion of patients who completed thestudy is greater than the lower first threshold but less than an uppersecond threshold, where the second threshold is greater than the firstthreshold, then method 400 may continue to 430 and record a moderateconcern for the study results. Method 400 may then continue to 432 inFIG. 4B from either 430 in FIG. 4A, or from 428 if it is determined at428 that there are no analysis concerns. It may be determined that thereare no analysis concerns if the proportion of patients who completed thestudy is greater than the upper second threshold.

Continuing to FIG. 4B from FIG. 4A, method 400 may proceed to 432 anddetermine if there are sample and/or power size concerns with the studyresults. It may be determined if there are sample and/or power sizeconcerns based on the confidence intervals of the study results, and thestatistical significance of the study results. If the study results haveinsignificant differences, confidence intervals that are too large todraw any conclusion from the results, and/or confidence intervals arenot provided, then it may be determined that there are sample and/orpower size concerns. As such, method 400 may proceed to 406 and assign alow confidence to the study results. The method may then return.

If the sample and/or power size concerns are unknown due to lack ofinformation, then method 400 may proceed to 434 and record a moderatesafety concern for the study results. Method 400 may then continue to436 from either 434, or from 432 if it is determined at 432 that thereare no sample and/or power size concerns. At 436, method 400 may includedetermining if the study groups are randomized. If it is determined thatthe study groups are not randomized at 436, then method 400 may continue406 and assign a low confidence to the study results. The method maythen return. If it is unknown whether the study groups are randomizeddue to lack of information, method 400 may proceed to 438 and record amoderate concern for the study results. Method 400 may then continue to440 from either 438, or from 436 if it is determined at 436 that thestudy groups were randomized. At 440, the method 400 may comprisedetermining if the study concealed allocation of the medication.Concealment of the allocation may include, blinding clinicians in thestudy to medication they are providing the patients in the study. If itis determined that the study did not practice effective concealment ofallocation, then method 400 may proceed to 406 and assign a lowconfidence to the study results. The method may then return.

If it is unknown whether concealment of allocation took place in thestudy due to lack of information then method 400 may proceed to 442 andrecord a moderate safety concern for the study results. Method 400 maythen continue to 442 from either 442, or from 440 if it is determined at440 that there was proper concealment of allocation. At 444, method 400may comprise determining if there was blinding in the study. Blindingmay involve ensuring that the patients were unaware of the group theywere assigned to. As an example, a blinded patient may be unaware ifthey are taking an actual medication or a placebo. If it is determinedthat the patients were not blinded in the study, and were aware of thegroup they were placed in, then method 400 may proceed to 406 and assigna low confidence to the results from the study. The method may thenreturn.

If it is unknown whether the study properly blinded the patients due tolack of information, then method 400 may continue to 446 and record amoderate safety concern for the study results. Method 400 may thencontinue to 448 from either 446 or from 444 if it is determined at 444that there was proper blinding of the patients. At 448, method 400 maycomprise determining if concomitant medication confounded the studyresults. Thus, it if is determined at 448 that patients were takingmedications outside of the study that could have affected the results ofthe study, then method 400 may proceed to 406 and assign a lowconfidence to the study results. The method may then return. If at 448,it is unknown if concomitant medication confounded study results due tolack of information, then method 400 may continue to 450 and record amoderate safety concern for the study results.

Method 400 may then continue to 452 from either 450 or from 448 if it isdetermined at 448 that the results were not confounded by concomitantmedication. At 452 it may be determined if there are drug wash outconcerns. Wash out concerns may include if a patient in the study stopstaking a drug in such close proximity to the study that the effects oftaking that medication confound the result of the study. Thus, a washout concerns may include if a patient in the study was still takingmedications within a threshold amount of time before the onset of thestudy. If it is determined that there are wash out period concerns at452, method 400 may proceed to 406 and assign a low confidence to thestudy results. The method may then return.

If it is unknown if there are wash out concerns at 452 due to a lack ofinformation, then method 400 may proceed to 454 and record a moderateconcern for the study results. Method 400 may then continue to 456 fromeither 454 or from 452 if it is determined at 452 that there are no drugwash out period concerns. At 456 it is determined if there are statisticconcerns. Statistic concerns may include any artifacts which mayconfound the study results such as clinician-statistician interactionand communication, faulty reporting, inferring causation in place ofassociation, multiplicity of hypothesis, missing data, etc. If it isdetermined that there are statistic concerns and that they areidentified post-hoc, after the analysis of the study results, thenmethod 400 may proceed to 406 and assign a low confidence to the studyresults. The method may then return. If one or more statistical concernsexist, but they were pre-identified before analysis of the studyresults, then method 400 may continue to 458 and record a moderateconcern for the study results. Method 400 may then continue to 460 fromeither 458 or from 456 if it is determined at 456 that there are nostatistic concerns. At 460, the method 400 may comprise determining ifthere are more than two total moderate concerns recorded. Thus, ifmethod 400 recorded a modern concern at least twice between 408 and 460,then method 400 may continue to 462, and determine if the moderateconcerns make the study unreliable. If it is determined at 462 that thetwo or more moderate concerns make the study unreliable, then method 400may proceed to 406 and assign a low confidence to the study results. Themethod may then return.

However, if at 462 the two or more moderate concerns do not make thestudy unreliable, then method 400 may continue to 466 and assign amoderate confidence to the study results. The method may then return.Returning to 460, if it is determined that there are less than two totalmoderate concerns for the study, then method 400 may proceed to 464 anddetermine if the study has any moderate concerns. If the study has onemoderate concern, the method 400 continues to 466 and a moderateconfidence is assigned to the study results. The method may then return.However, if no moderate concerns were assigned to the study, then method400 may proceed from 464 to 468 and assign a high confidence to thestudy results. The method may then return.

Thus, method 400 may comprise assessing the accuracy and/or confidenceof results from an individual clinical study. The method 400 may includeassessing whether a variety of clinical procedures and protocols werefollowed to reduce the chance of confounding results, and also assessesthe accuracy of the statistical analysis used to evaluate the resultsfrom the study.

Turning now to FIG. 5 , it shows a method 500 for appraising ameta-analysis study or systematic review. Specifically, method 500 mayinclude appraising a study using meta-analysis standards as describedabove at 324 with reference to method 300 in FIG. 3A. As such, method500 may be executed at 324 of method 300 and may be included withinmethod 300. Said another way, method 500 may be executed at 324 ofmethod 300. Instructions for carrying out method 500 may be stored inthe memory of a computer and/or server (e.g., data holding subsystem 204of server 202 from FIG. 2A). As such, method 500 may be carried out by alogic system (e.g., logic subsystem 203 from FIG. 2A) of the computerand/or server.

Method 500 may begin at 502 by reviewing the meta-study. After reviewingthe meta-study at 502, the method 500 may proceed to 504 and determineif the study inclusion criteria is clearly defined. The study inclusioncriteria may include criteria used to determine if a patient is eligiblefor participation in the study. If the study inclusion criteria is notclearly defined then method 500 may proceed to 506 and may assign a lowconfidence to the results of the meta-analysis study. The method maythen return. However if it is determined at 504 that the study inclusioncriteria is clearly defined in the meta-analysis study, then method 500may continue to 508 and determine if the individual studies arecritically appraised. In one example, critical appraisal may include apeer review process of the individual studies that attempts to detectsources of bias in the studies. If one or more of the studies have notbeen critically appraised, then method 500 may proceed to 506 and assigna low confidence to the meta-study results. Method 500 may then return.

However, if at 508 it is determined that the individual studies in themeta-study have all been critically appraised, then method 500 continuesto 510 and determines if the results from the meta-study conclude thatthe treatment effect can be quantified. Thus, the method at 510 maycomprise determining if the administration of the medication in themeta-study produced measurable, and significant effects in the patientsof the study. If the treatment effect is not quantifiable, then method500 may proceed from 510 to 506 and assign a low confidence to themeta-study results. Method 500 may then return. If at 510, it isdetermined that the treatment effect can be quantified, then method 500may proceed to 512 and determine if there are any moderate concerns inthe manner described above with reference to method 400 of FIGS. 4A and4B. The moderate concerns include concerns with the confidence of thestudy results due to a lack of proper documentation and recording of theprocedures, data analysis, protocols, etc., performed in the meta-study.As an example, some moderate concerns may include lack of providedinformation regarding the patient population, blinding of the patients,randomization of patients into study groups, etc. Other examples ofmoderate concerns are provided with reference above to method 400 inFIGS. 4A and 4B. If one or more moderate concerns are detected at 512,method 500 may proceed to 514 and assign a moderate confidence to thestudy results. Method 500 may then return. However, if at 512 it isdetermined that there are no moderate concerns with the study results,then method 500 may continue to 516 and assign a high confidence to thestudy results. Method 500 may then return.

Continuing to FIG. 6 , an example method for assigning a letter grade toa medication based on the user personalized grade is shown. The lettergrades in decreasing effectiveness are “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” and “F.”Thus, a medication assigned a letter grade of “A” may have a higherpredicted effectiveness than a medication assigned a letter grade of“B,” which may have a higher predicted effectiveness than a medicationassigned a letter grade of “C,” and so on. A letter grade of “PI” maysignify that the medication is effective but has unknown risks. Thus,the effectiveness of a medication given a letter grade of “PI” may beapproximately the same or similar to a medication for which the risksare known and assigned a letter grade of one or more of “A,” “B,” or“C.” However, a letter grade of “I” may signify that the medication isnot effective and may also have unknown risks. Thus, the effectivenessof a medication given a letter grade of “PI” may be approximately thesame or similar to a medication for which the risks are known andassigned a letter grade of one or more of “D” and “F.”

Specifically, method 600 shown in FIG. 6 may include appraising andassigning a user personalized grade to a medication based on resultsfrom one or more studies involving the medication and its treatmenteffects. In the example shown in method 600, the user personalized gradeis a letter grade. However, it is important to note that in otherembodiments, the user personalized grade may be represented on anothergrading scale such as via numbers, stars (e.g., 3 out of 5), checkmarks,or other visual comparison scales. Method 600 shows an example ofgrading a medication as described with reference to 338 of method 300 inFIG. 3B. As such, in one embodiment, the method 300 at 338 may includeexecuting method 600. Said another way, method 600 may be executed at338 of method 300. Thus, method 600 may comprise evaluating severalcollected studies concerning a particular medication, to determine auser personalized grade for the medication based on its effectiveness,risks, and safety concerns. Instructions for carrying out method 600 maybe stored in the memory of a computer and/or server (e.g., data holdingsubsystem 204 of server 202 from FIG. 2A). As such, method 600 may becarried out by a logic system (e.g., logic subsystem 203 from FIG. 2A)of the computer and/or server.

Method 600 begins at 602 by determining if there is at least one highconfidence study relating to a particular medication. A high confidencestudy may include either an individual study assigned a high confidenceas is shown above with reference to 468 of method 400 in FIG. 4B, or ameta-study assigned a high confidence as is shown above with referenceto 516 of method 500 in FIG. 5 . If it is determined that there are nostudies relating to the medication that have been assigned a highconfidence, then method 600 proceeds to 604 and determines if there aretwo or more studies of fair (e.g., moderate) confidence. If there are nostudies of high confidence and less than two studies of moderateconfidence, then method 600 may proceed to 636 and determine if thesafety risk of the medication decreases the net benefit of taking themedication. If the safety risk decreases the net benefit of taking themedication, the method 600 may assign the medication with a letter gradeof “PI” at 640. If at 636, it is determined that the safety risk oftaking the medication decreases the net benefit of the medication, or ifit is unknown whether the safety risk decreases the net benefit oftaking the medication, then method 600 may proceed to 638 and assign aletter grade of “I” to the medication. Method 600 may then return.

Returning to 604, if there are two or more studies of moderateconfidence regarding the medication, then method 600 may proceed to 608and determine if the magnitude of the benefit in the results andendpoints from the studies are clinically meaningful. If the resultsfrom the studies are not clinically meaningful, then method 600 mayproceed to 636 and determine if the safety risk decreases the netbenefit of taking the medication. Method 600 may then proceed to either640 or 638 as described above. Returning to 608, if the magnitude of thebenefit in the results and endpoint are clinically meaningful for thetwo or more studies of moderate confidence, then method 600 may proceed610.

Returning to 602, if it is determined that at least one study for themedication has a high confidence level in its results, then method 600may continue to 606. At 606, the method 600 may comprise determining ifall of the study endpoints have a consistent magnitude of benefit. Thatis, at 606, the method may include determining if the studies haverelatively consistent results. If the study endpoints do not haveconsistent magnitude of benefits, then method 600 may proceed to 636,which may involve determining if the safety risk associated with themedication decreases the net benefit of taking the medication. Method600 may then proceed to either 640 or 638 as described above. However,if at 606 it is determined that the study endpoints do have consistentmagnitude of benefits, then method 600 may continue to 610. Thereforemethod 600 may continue to 610 from either 608 or 606.

At 610, the method 600 comprises determining if the medication is moreeffective than no treatment. If it is determined at 610 that taking themedication would be no more effective in treating a medical conditionthan not taking medication, method 600 may continue to 628 and determineif the safety risk associated with the medication decreases the netbenefit of taking the medication. If the safety risk does not decreasethe net benefit of taking the medication, then method 600 may continuefrom 628 to 630 and assign a letter grade of “C” to the medication.Method 600 may then return. However, it at 628 it is determined that thesafety risk of taking the medication decreases any net benefit derivedfrom taking the medication, then method 600 may proceed to 634 andassign a letter grade of “D” to the medication. Method 600 may thenreturn. If it is unknown whether the safety risk of taking themedication decreases the net benefit of taking the medication thenmethod 600 may proceed from 628 to 632 and assign a letter grade of “I”to the medication. Method 600 may then return.

Returning to 610, if it is determined that taking the medication is moreeffective in treating the medical condition than not taking themedication, then method 600 may continue to 612 and determine if thesafety risks associated with taking the medication are known. If thesafety risks are unknown, then method 600 may proceed to 626 and assigna letter grade of “PI” to the medication. Method 600 may then return.

However, if at 612 the safety risks associated with the medication areknown, method 600 may continue to 614 and determine the extent of thenet benefit provided to a patient taking the medication. If the netbenefit of taking the medication is above a first threshold, then method600 may continue to 616 and determine if the safety risk of taking themedication decreases the net benefit of taking the medication. If thesafety risks of taking the medication decrease the net benefits derivedfrom taking the medication, then method 600 may continue from 616 to 622and assign a letter grade of “B” to the medication. Method 600 may thenreturn. If however the safety risks associated with the medication aredetermined to not decrease the net benefits gained from taking themedication at 616, then method 600 may continue to 624 and assign aletter grade of “A” to the medication. Method 600 may then return.

Returning to 614, if the net benefit gained from taking the medicationis below the threshold, then method 600 may proceed to 618 and determineif the safety risks associated with taking the medication decrease thenet benefits gained from taking the medication. If the safety risksassociated with the medication do not decrease the net benefit derivedfrom taking the medication, then method 600 may proceed from 618 to 622and assign a letter grade of “B” to the medication. Method 600 may thenreturn. However, it at 618 it is determined that the safety risksassociated with the medication decrease the net benefit derived fromtaking the medication, then method 600 continues to 620 and may assign aletter grade of “C” to the medication.

The method 600 involves assigning a letter grade to a medication basedon the effectiveness of the medication and the potential health risksassociated with taking the medication. Further, the letter gradeassigned to a medication is indicative of the user personalized gradecalculated for the medication, which may be based on the number ofstudies using the medication, the confidence of the results of thosestudies, the effectiveness of the medication in treating a medicalcondition, and the safety risks associated with the medication that maydecrease the net benefit of taking the medication. Thus, increases inthe user personalized grade calculated and assigned to a medication mayindicate an increase in the effectiveness of that medication, and/or adecrease in the safety concerns associated with that medication. Theletter grades assigned to a medication in decreasing order of userpersonalized grade may include: “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” “PI,” and “I.”

Thus, FIGS. 3-6 show example methods that may be performed in responseto a user request for information regarding available medication optionsto treat a medical condition. Specifically, a server (e.g., server 202from FIG. 2A) in communication with one or more remote servers (e.g.,remote server 232) may retrieve information from databases (e.g.,databases 233) stored in the one or more remote servers pertaining tothe medications used in treating the medical condition of the user. Theinformation retrieved from the remote server may include scientificliterature, clinical studies, peer reviewed literature, informationprovided from the FDA, etc. A logic subsystem (e.g., logic subsystem 203from FIG. 2A) may then execute various instructions, such as thosepreviously described with reference to the methods included in FIGS. 3-6) to determine the efficacy, safety, and risks associated with one ormore of the medications. Further, additional information regarding themedications may be obtained and/or analyzed including the cost, patientreviews, doctor recommendation, etc. After obtaining and/or analyzinginformation about various medications, that information may then bedisplayed to the user via the user interface. An example method fordisplaying various medication options available to a user with aparticular medical condition is shown in FIG. 7 .

Turning now to FIG. 7 , it shows a method 700 for displaying medicationinformation to a user about one or more medications used in treating aparticular medical condition. Such information may include informationregarding the cost, effectiveness, user personalized grade, risks,safety, care provider recommendations, secondary technical effects,prescription experience data etc., of each medication. Instructions forcarrying out method 700 may be stored in the memory of a computer and/orserver (e.g., data holding subsystem 204 of server 202 from FIG. 2A). Assuch, method 700 may be carried out by a logic system (e.g., logicsubsystem 203 from FIG. 2A) of the computer and/or server.

Method 700 begins at 702 which comprises receiving user profileinformation. As described above with reference to FIG. 3A, user profileinformation may include one or more of the age, gender, ethnicity,medical history, etc., of a user. Thus, user profile information mayinclude both medical and non-medical information. After receiving userprofile information the method may continue to 704. The method at 704may comprise receiving search input from a user. In one embodiment, thesearch input at 704 may include a search request from the user for allmedications relating to a medical condition. Thus, a user may input asearch of a particular medical condition in order to see availablemedications used in treating said input medical condition. As anexample, a user may input a search for high cholesterol, and request forfeedback on medication used to treat high cholesterol. In anotherembodiment the user may search by medication at 704. Thus, a user mayinput a specific medication, and request information about thatparticular medication. As an example, a user may search “Lovastatin,”for information about that medication, and for what medical conditionsit may be used.

After receiving search input at 704, method 700 may then continue to 706and import the user profile and match treatment user personalized gradesto the user. Specifically, the method 700 at 706 may comprise, based onthe input received at 704, querying one or more medication databases(e.g., databases 233 described above with reference to FIG. 2 ) forinformation relating to medications associated with the search input at704, and querying a patient profile database (e.g., database 234described above with reference to FIG. 2 ) for patient information.Further, the method 700 at 706, may comprise retrieving the medicationinformation from the one or more medication databases and retrieving thepatient profile information from the patient profile database. Asdescribed in greater detail above with reference to FIG. 3 , based oninformation about the user stored in the user profile, a unique userpersonalized grade may be assigned to each available medication. Thus,the effectiveness, safety, health risks, all of which may be used indetermining the user personalized grade of a medication, may changedepending on the information provided by the user in their user profile.As an example, a medication whose side effects may include seizures, maybe assigned a lower user personalized grade to a user who has epilepsy,than a patient who does not have epilepsy.

Thus, the calculating the user personalized grade may be based on one ormore of the clinical effectiveness of the medications, prescriptionexperience data, cost factor, insurance coverage, care providerrecommendations, and technical secondary effects. Further, in someexamples, one or more of the clinical effectiveness of the medications,prescription experience data, cost factor, insurance coverage, careprovider recommendations, and technical secondary effects may bedifferentially weighted when calculating the user personalized grade. Asone example, the clinical effectiveness may be weighted more heavilythan the prescription experience data, cost factor, insurance coverage,care provider recommendations, and technical secondary effects. Thus theclinical effectiveness of the medication may have a larger influence onthe user personalized grade the medication is assigned than theprescription experience data, cost factor, insurance coverage, careprovider recommendations, and technical secondary effects.

Once, the medication user personalized grades have been correlated tothe user profile, method 700 may then proceed to 708 and determine thecost factor, prescription experience data, secondary technical effects,etc., of the one or more medications matched to the user profile. Asdescribed earlier, the prescription experience data may includefeedback, reviews, and comments from patients with experience with themedication. Secondary technical effects may be side effects of themedication as established in scientific literature and clinical testingof the medication. The cost factor may be indicative of theout-of-pocket cost of the medication to the user.

Then, after determining one or more of the cost factor, prescriptionexperience data, secondary technical effects, etc., of the one or moremedication matched to the user profile, the method 700 may continue to710. At 710, the method 700 may include displaying all medicationoptions to the user with relevant information about the medication. Themedication may be displayed via a display screen (e.g., displaysubsystem 225 from FIG. 2A) to a user on a user device (e.g., userdevice 222 from FIG. 2A). The relevant information about the medicationmay include the cost factor, prescription experience data, secondarytechnical effects, safety, health risks, effectiveness, and careprovider recommendations, of the medication. In other examples therelevant information may include direct electronic connections to one ormore scientific research articles used in determining the effectivenessand/or user personalized grade of the medication. It is important tonote that the medications may include medications produced by more thanone pharmaceutical company. Method 700 may then return.

Various example displays which may be presented to a user regardingmedication options are shown below in FIGS. 8A-8G. Thus, FIGS. 8A-8G mayshow example interfaces displayed to a user on a display system (e.g.,display subsystem 225 from FIG. 2A), to allow a user to comparemedications. Further, FIGS. 8A-8G show an example user interface throughwhich a user may interact with a healthcare platform (e.g., healthcareplatform 100).

Turning to FIG. 8A, it shows a first display 800, which may resemble asearch engine, and may prompt a user to search for medications. As suchthe display 800 may include a search field 802, which allows a user totype in a search. In one example a user may search for a specificmedication. As an example, a user may input “Lovastatin.” In otherexamples the user input a medical condition and search for availablemedication used to treat said medical condition. As an example, a usermay input “high cholesterol.” The display 800 may additional include anicon identifying the user. In one example the icon may be a picture ofthe user. As such, the icon may be used to represent the user currentlysigned in to the healthcare platform. By looking at the icon, a user maybe able to identify it they are the one signed into the healthcareplatform. Next to the icon, there may be an option for a user to selectto “sign out” of the current user profile, if it does not match theiruser profile.

Turning now to FIG. 8B, it shows a second display 900, which maypresented to the user after the user has input a search element 901 intothe search field 802, such as a medication, or medical condition.Specifically, second display 900 shows a display that may be presentedto a user if the search element 901 input by the user in the searchfield 802 is “high cholesterol.” As shown in FIG. 8B, the search element901, may be presented to the user on the second display 900. Thus,second display 900, may show a search report which would be presented toa user in response to a search for high cholesterol. Several medicationsused in treating the medical condition may be presented side-by-side toone another. The medication names 902, their cost factor 906, userpersonalized grade 904, secondary technical effects 912, user reviews,and a link to scientific articles mentioning the medication may all beprovided on the same display 900. A user may sort the medication by thecost 906 and/or user personalized grade 904 of the medication. As shownin the example provided in FIG. 8B, the medications are sorted by userpersonalized grade 904 from highest to lowest user personalized grade904. A user may also apply various filters such as to only includecertain medications depending on the preference of the user. For examplea user may filter medications so that only medications that have beenFDA approved may be displayed on the display 900.

In the example shown in second display 900, several high cholesterolmedications may be presented such as Atorvastatin, Simvastatin,Lovastatin, and Livalo. Along with the name 902 of the medication, auser personalized grade 904 for each medication may also be provideddirectly below the name 902 of the medication. In the example shown, theuser personalized grade 904 may be a letter grade such as “A,” “B,” “C,”“D,” or “F,” where the letter grade may indicate the predictedeffectiveness of the medication. In other example, the letter grade mayalso be based on one or more of the predicted safety, health risks,costs, care provider recommendations, etc., of the medications. Theletter grade may be obtained by evaluating scientific research conductedon the medication, for example in the manner described above withreference FIGS. 3-7 . If there is not enough available publishedinformation regarding the effectiveness of the medication, then themedication may not be assigned a user personalized grade.

In addition to the user personalized grade 904, the cost factor 906 ofthe medication may also be displayed directly below the name of eachmedication, and next to the user personalized grade 904. The cost factor906 may include both the cost of the medication before and after thedeductible. Additionally, the cost factor 906 may be based on a user'sinsurance plan, benefits, coinsurance, copay, etc. Below the name 902 ofeach medication, the display 900 may additionally include a user reviewbar 908. The user review bar 908 may include an average user score ofthe medication. In the example shown in FIG. 8B, the user review bar 908may be an average user review out of five stars. Thus, users who havetaken the medication can assign a score to the medication anywhere fromzero to five stars. Additionally, the secondary technical effects 912for the medications may also be presented. In one example the secondarytechnical effects 912 may be presented directly below the user reviewbar 908. Further, and not shown in FIG. 8B, the second display 900 mayalso include an icon which the user can select to take the user to thescientific articles used in formulating the user personalized grade ofthe medication. Thus, the user can click on the icon and be re-directedto the one or more scientific articles that were used in determining theuser personalized grade assigned to the medication. As such, display 900allows users easy access to peer-reviewed literature which details theeffectiveness, safety, etc. of a medication in clinical studies withpatients similar to the current user.

Display 900 may also include a compare icon 910 which a user may selectto compare specific medications from the initial list of medicationsprovided in the display 900. For example, a user may select the compareicon 910 from two or more medications listed in the second display 900,and compare those two or more medication based on additional parametersnot included in the second display 900. An example display is shown inFIG. 8C that may be presented to a user in response to the userselecting the compare icon 910 for two or more medications.

Turning now to FIG. 8C, it shows a third display 1000, that is anexample of a display that may be presented to a user after a userselects to compare two or more medications from an initial medicationlist, for example in the manner described above in FIG. 8B. The two ormore medications selected by the user for comparison may be presented ina first screen 1002 overlaid on a second screen which 1004 where thesecond screen 1004 may be the same or similar to display 900 describedabove with reference to FIG. 8B. Thus, information regarding themedication the user wishes to compare may be presented on top of thedisplay of the list of medication provided in display 900. As such, thefirst screen 1002 may only cover a portion of the second screen 1004,allowing the user to still see a portion of the list of medicationincluded in the second screen 1004. The first screen 1002 may comparethe medications and information about the medication side by side to oneanother. In the example shown in FIG. 8C, the name 902 of eachmedication may be arranged in vertical columns, and medicationinformation about each medication may be presented in horizontal rows.

The medication information about the medications, may include the userpersonalized grade 904, secondary technical effects 912, cost factor906, prescription experience data or user review bar 908, side effects,and cost, similar to the information provided in FIG. 8B. However, thescreen 1002 may additionally include a symptom relief tab 1016 includinginformation on whether or not the medication relieves symptomsassociated with the medical condition, a prognosis tab 1014 includinginformation about whether the medication stops and/or slow theprogression of the medical condition, and a safety notes tab 1018including safety information about the medication. An icon 1020 beloweach medication may also be provided which may allow a user to selectand acquire additional information about each specific medication. Anexample display screen that may be presented to a user, in response to auser selecting the icon 1020 to request more information about amedication is shown in FIG. 8D.

Turning now to FIG. 8D, a fourth display 1100, shows an example displaythat may be presented to a user, upon a user request for informationabout a specific medication. In the example shown in FIG. 8D, specificinformation about the medication Atorvastatin is shown. Thus, fourthdisplay 1100 may only provide information about one medication, whichthe user may select for in third display 1000 via the icon 1020.

The information provided in fourth display 1100 may include the userpersonalized grade 904 of the medication, cost factor 906 user reviewtab 908, symptom relief tab 1016, safety notes tab 1018, and prognosistab 1014. All of the above information about the medication may beincluded in the second display 900 and third display 1000. However, inaddition to previously available information about the medication,fourth display 1100 may include user comments for the medication.Specifically the comments may be sorted in the positive review comments1102 and negative review comments 1104 based on the score each userassigned to the medication. Additionally, fourth display 1100 mayinclude a rating tab 1106 which allows the current user to add amedication review, which may include one or more of a score, comment,and personal information. Additionally, care provider recommendationsregarding the medication may be provided in fourth display 1100.Further, a user may select an icon (not shown) which may direct the userto scientific literature mentioning the medication in one or moreclinical studies.

As seen in FIG. 8D, below the information regarding the currentmedication (e.g., Atorvastatin), several other icons may be presented,which if selected, may direct a user to other individual medicationoptions. The other medications options may include medications used intreating the same underlying medical condition of the current medicationpresented in FIG. 8D. Further, the other medications may include thesame, or at least one or more of the medication presented to the user inthe second display 900.

Moving on to FIG. 8E, it shows another example display 1200 which may bepresented to a user. The display 1200 may be displayed to a user inresponse to the user searching for a specific medication in the searchfield at display 800. In the example, provided in FIG. 8E, the display1200 may be presented to the user in response to the user searching forLovastatin in the search field of display 800. In another embodiment,display 1200 may be presented to a user in response to the userselecting a specific medication from a list of medications provided touser in response to a search for a specific condition at display 800. Asan example, display 1200 may be presented to the user in response to theuser selecting Lovastatin from either display 900 from FIG. 8B, or fromdisplay 1000 in FIG. 8C.

Display 1200 may include information about a specific medication, in theexample of FIG. 8E, Lovastatin. Information about the medication mayinclude: a list of secondary technical effects, whether it relievessymptoms associated with the medical condition, whether it stops orslows progression of the medical condition, safety notes, user reviews,and user comments. Additionally, display 1200 may include generalinformation about the medication such as an FDA status tab 1202including information about whether or not the medication is FDAapproved, an off label use tab 1204 including information about anyreported off label uses of the medication, delivery method tab 1206including information about how the medication is taken (e.g., pillstaken orally, injections, liquid, etc.). The display 1200 may also allowa user to select a clinical effectiveness tab 1208 which when selectedmay direct the user to one or more of clinical studies, peer reviewedliterature articles, and scientific literature articles that presentresults for the medication's tested effectiveness. Further, display 1200may include information about what groups of patients benefited the mostfrom taking the medication. For example, the medication may be morebeneficial for a specific age range, gender, medical history andcondition of a patient, etc. In the example shown in display 1200,Lovastatin may be most effective for patients who are at a high risk forhigh cholesterol and heart attack. Display 1200 may also includeinformation on how the medication works. This may include the biologicalmechanisms under which the medication operates to treat the medicalcondition.

As shown in FIG. 8E, display 1200 may additionally include a list ofother medications used in treating the same underlying medicalcondition. In the example shown in FIG. 8E, the list of alternativemedication may be presented directly below the current medicationinformation. The alternative medications may be presented to the user ina manner similar to that shown in display 900 of FIG. 8B, with a side byside comparison of the medications. Under each medication, medicationinformation such as the cost, user personalized grade, user reviews, andside effects may also be presented for each medication.

Moving on to FIG. 8F, it may include a display 1300, that may show themedication profile of a user (e.g., patient profile from FIGS. 3A and 7). The display 1300 may include basic personal information about theuser such as their name, location, age, gender, care provider, medicaldoctor, and most recent date of medication analysis. A list of themedications currently prescribed and/or taken by the user may bepresented on the display 1300. An estimate monthly cost of all thepatient's current medications may be presented in a monthly estimatedcost tab 1302. In the example shown in display 1300, the predictedmonthly cost of all of the user's medication may be $150.

Further, the cost of each medication may be itemized below the monthlyestimated cost tab 1302. Thus, next to each medication, an estimatedcost for that medication may be presented in a cost tab 1304. In someexamples, the cost may be a one-time cost for the medication or a costper treatment. In another example, the cost may be a period or intervalcost, such as a monthly cost for the medication. In yet furtherexamples, the cost may be a yearly cost. It should be appreciated, thecost may be the cost of the medication at a time interval more or lessthan a year. The costs may be normalized for comparison purposes.Further, the general purpose and intended use of each medication mayalso be provided under the name of each medication, so that the user mayeasily keep track of their medications, and for what condition they aretaking each medication.

Additionally, each medication may be color coded to indicate the risk ofthat medication. In one example, if a medication is high risk, a list ofalternative medication used to treat the same condition, but having alower risk, may be provided next to the current medication. In theexample shown display 1300 Ambien may be a high risk medication fortreating insomnia because it is highly addictive, however alternativemedications that also treat insomnia but are not as addictive as Ambienmay be presented to the user such as Lunesta, and Melatonin.

In another embodiment, display 1300 may be presented to a user as partof an intervention program as described above with reference to FIG. 1 .Display 1300 may be sent as a message, alert, and/or notification to auser via wireless communication such as email, text message, instantmessage, etc. Thus, if a user selects a medication that may present morethan a threshold amount of health risk to the user, display 1300 mayautomatically be generated and subsequently sent to the user. The healthrisk may be identified based on information provided by the user andstored in the user profile. Further, the health risk may be presented tothe user in a health risk block 1308, next to the medication that posesthe health risk. For example, one of the medications may pose a serioushealth risk when taken in combination with another one of the user'scurrent medications. Said another way, the interaction of two or moremedications when taken together may pose a serious health risk to auser. Thus, the user may receive a notification if one, or a combinationof two or more of their current medications pose a serious health riskto the user. In the example shown in FIG. 8F, Ambien is identified asbeing a health risk to the user. The medication may be a health riskbecause of its addictiveness. Although Ambien may be used to treatinsomnia, other less addictive medications, are available to treatinsomnia as well. As such, the display 1300 may include showing the useralternative medications used for the same purpose as current high riskmedications.

Additionally, the user's care provider may be notified of the healthrisk posed to the user. The user may receive information as to why theyreceived the intervention notification, as well as information regardingoptions available for the user. For example, the display 1300 mayinclude giving the user the option to call their care provider, or get asecond opinion.

In another embodiment, the intervention program presented in display1300 may be triggered by the user's care provider which may be theirmedical doctor. For example, a user's care provider may also have accessto the user's medication profile, and may identify potential healthrisks associated with one or more of the user's medications.

Turning now to FIG. 8G, it shows an example display 1400 that may bepresented to a user as part of the intervention program described abovewith reference to FIG. 8F. However, in the example shown in FIG. 8G, thedisplay 1400 may be presented to a user, after a user has been taking amedication for a threshold duration. The threshold duration may be aduration of medication use such as a number of prescription re-fills,and/or it may be an amount of time such as one month. In the exampleshown in FIG. 8G, the display 1400 may be presented to a user after theusing has been taking testosterone therapy for a threshold duration.Thus, display 1400, may be presented to a user after the using has beentaking a medication that may pose a moderate health risk to the userand/or may be more expensive than other medication alternatives. Inanother example, display 1400 may additionally or alternatively bepresented to a user if a medication has less than a threshold grade. Inthe example shown in display 1400, the testosterone therapy has a gradeof “D,” which may be lower than the threshold grade.

Thus, display 1400 may present simultaneously, and side-by-side, thecurrent medication of the user, and other alternative medications thathave a higher personalized grade than the current medication. Further,information about the clinical effectiveness of the medications mayadditionally be presented. Specific studies may even be referenced indisplay 1400 to provide evidence for the effectiveness of thealternative medications. Additionally, the cost of the currentmedication and the alternative medications may also be provided. Thus,the display 1400 may include a user's current medication, andalternative medications, the personalized grade for each medication,which may be a letter grade, clinical effectiveness of the medications,and cost.

As such, the intervention program may also include notifying a user whena medication may not be effective, and may result in the user payingmore money for a medication that may not be as effective as lessexpensive alternatives. Therefore, display 1400 also shows a user,alternative medication and/or treatment options that are more effectivethan their current medication, and may be less expensive. In the exampleshown in FIG. 8G, exercise and weight loss have a higher grade thantestosterone therapy. Thus, the predicted effectiveness of exercise andweight loss may be greater than testosterone therapy in improving mood,energy, libido, etc.

Display 1400 may further include presenting questions to a user, for auser to judge their experience with the medication. Thus, the questionsmay ask the user how effective the medication and/or therapy has been intreating the medical condition of the user. The display 1400 may furtherprompt the user to contact their care provider to discuss alternativemedication options.

Thus, display 1300 shown in FIG. 8F, may be presented to a userimmediately or shortly after a user selects a medication that poses animmediate and/or serious health risk to the user. As such, display 1300may be presented as an alert to the user, to increase prevention ofpotential health risks to a user. Display 1400, shown in FIG. 8G, may bepresented to a user after a duration of medication use, to help a userfind more effective treatments at a reduced cost. Said another way,display 1400 may increase the transparency of medication options to auser, and may help a user select a more effective and less-costlymedication option than their current medication.

While the above description relates to systems and methods for gradingmedications, specifically prescription medications, it should beappreciated that in other embodiments the above systems and methods maybe applied in a similar manner as described above with other forms ofcare treatment with or without the example of medications orprescriptions. Said another way, the example control and estimationroutines described herein can be used with various forms of caretreatment. Other forms of care treatment may include, alone or incombination with one more of the other care treatments: lifestylechoices, exercise, dieting, medical procedures, alternative therapiessuch as acupuncture, chiropractic care, homeopathy, massage therapy,naturopathy, etc. In this way, systems and methods for a healthcareplatform may include grading care treatment options, and presenting saidtreatment options simultaneously to a user on a user device. Thus, auser may be able to compare medication options, alternative therapies,and other treatment options based on their effectiveness, cost, userexperience reviews, care provider recommendations, side effects, andhealth risks.

As such, a healthcare platform and user interface is provided that mayallow a user to search for medications by medication or condition. Ifthe user searches by condition, a plurality of medications used to treatthe condition may be presented to the user side by side. Each medicationoption may have medication information regarding its price, userpersonalized grade, prescription experience data, user reviews, careprovider recommendations, secondary technical effects including sideeffects, health risks, safety, etc. Further, a user may sort medicationoptions by cost, and/or user personalized grade of the medication. Theuser personalized grade of the medication may be determined by examiningpeer reviewed literature, clinical studies, scientific literature, etc.,in which the medication was studied. The results of those studies may beevaluated, and the user personalized grade assigned to each medicationmay be based on one or more of the: the confidence of the study results,reliability of the study results, and the effectiveness of themedication in treating the condition and/or alleviating its symptoms.Further, the effectiveness of the medication may be determined based ona weighted score of the participants in the one or more studiespertaining to the medication. Specifically, the results from patients inthe studies with more shared characteristics to the user may be weightedmore heavily than patients sharing fewer characteristics to the user. Assuch, the accuracy of the predicted effectiveness of a medication for auser may be improved and be user-specific. Said another way, thepredicted effectiveness of a medication in treating a condition of auser, may be specifically tailored and personalized for that user, basedon personal information of the user, a medical history of the user,current medication taken by the user, etc.

In addition to comparing medications based on their predictedeffectiveness, cost, side effects, user reviews, doctor recommendation,etc., a user may also purchase the medications through the healthcareplatform. Further, a user may create a user profile which may containpersonal information about the user, a medical history of the user,current medication prescribed and/or taken by the user. The user'sdoctor and/or care provider may have access to the user profile. Assuch, a care provider may intervene and prevent a user from purchasing aparticular medication if there is a significant enough health riskinvolved. Additionally and/or alternatively, the user may automaticallybe notified of potential health risks associated with one or more of themedications they are currently taking. Thus, the healthcare platform maystreamline all aspects of health care service for a user onto one userdevice. A user, may search, compare, select, purchase, provide feedback,and receive warnings after purchase, regarding medications,prescriptions medications, medications, treatment plans, etc.

As used herein, an element or step recited in the singular and proceededwith the word “a” or “an” should be understood as not excluding pluralof said elements or steps, unless such exclusion is explicitly stated.Furthermore, references to “one embodiment” of the present invention arenot intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additionalembodiments that also incorporate the recited features. Moreover, unlessexplicitly stated to the contrary, embodiments “comprising,”“including,” or “having” an element or a plurality of elements having aparticular property may include additional such elements not having thatproperty. The terms “including” and “in which” are used as theplain-language equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and“wherein.” Moreover, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc. areused merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numericalrequirements or a particular positional order on their objects.

This written description uses examples to disclose the invention,including the best mode, and also to enable a person of ordinary skillin the relevant art to practice the invention, including making andusing any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods.The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and mayinclude other examples that occur to those of ordinary skill in the art.Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims ifthey have structural elements that do not differ from the literallanguage of the claims, or if they include equivalent structuralelements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages ofthe claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: providing, for auser, remote access to a server over a network via a user devicecommunicatively coupled to the network, wherein the server includes adata-holding subsystem and a logic subsystem, the data-holding subsystemstoring machine readable instructions executable by the logic subsystem;wherein the server is communicatively coupled to multiple remote serversvia the network; and wherein the multiple remote servers include one ormore medication information databases and one or more patient profiledatabases; receiving, at the server, user profile information includingone or more characteristics of the user from the user device, whereinthe one or more characteristics include age, gender, existing medicalconditions and medications; responsive to a query from the user enteredinto a search field of a first display window that is presented on adisplay of the user device, the server being operative to: query the oneor more medication information databases and the one or more patientprofile databases in the multiple remote servers for medicationinformation; retrieve medication information for each medication in aset of medications from the one or more medication information databasesand the one or more patient profile databases in the multiple removeservers, wherein the medication information comprises prescriptionexperience data characterizing experiences of patients with eachmedication in the set of medications, cost factors, insurance coverage,technical secondary effects, and scientific studies concerning eachmedication in the set of medications, compile the medication informationfor each medication in the set of medications for integrated display onthe user device; display to the user in a second display window,subsequent to a query entry into the search field, on the display of theuser device, the medication information and links to the scientificstudies for each medication in the set of medications; simultaneouslydisplay to the user in a third display window in a side-by-side layout,two or more medications that the user has selected for comparisonwithout display of the unselected medications in the set of medications;and in the display of the user device, solely display a fourth displaywindow information related to a user selected medication included in theset of medications, wherein the information includes user commentsrelated to the user selected medication; and responsive to a purchaserequest for a particular medication in the set of medications from theuser via the user device, the server being further operative to:determine whether the particular medication presents more than athreshold amount of risk to the user based on the user profileinformation and the medication information, and responsive to theparticular medication presenting more than the threshold amount of riskto the user, display to the user, on the display of the user device,prior to the purchase of the particular medication, a list of one ormore alternative medications, wherein each alternative medication isdetermined to present a lower health risk to the user than theparticular medication, wherein the medications in the list of alternatemedications are simultaneously displayed side-by-side to one another ina single interface and each of the alternate medications in the list ofalternate medications includes a cost, a user review, and a side effectof each alternate medication which are included in the list.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the query comprises a search for a currentmedical condition of the user, and wherein, further responsive to thequery from the user device, the server is further operative to:calculate a user personalized grade for each medication in the set ofmedications based on the current medical condition of the user, the userprofile information, and the medication information, wherein the userpersonalized grade is lowered when a safety risk of taking themedication decreases a net benefit of the medication; transmit the userpersonalized grades, the set of medication information, and the links tothe scientific studies used in calculating the user personalized gradesto the user device over the network; display to the user, on the displayof the user device, the user personalized grades simultaneously with themedication information and the links to the scientific studies for eachmedication in the set of medications; and receiving a user selection ofa subset of one or more medications from the display information anddisplaying, on the display, the selected subset over the displayinformation.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein calculating the userpersonalized grade for each respective medication in the set ofmedications is based on a confidence level of each scientific studyconcerning the respective medication.
 4. The method of claim 2, whereinthe user personalized grade for each respective medication in the set ofmedications is calculated based on each of an effectiveness of therespective medication in treating the current medical condition of theuser and safety risks of the respective medication.
 5. The method ofclaim 4, wherein, further responsive to the query from the user device,the server is further operative to determine the effectiveness of eachrespective medication in the set of medications in treating the currentmedical condition of the user based on one or more sharedcharacteristics of patients in scientific studies concerning therespective medication with the user.
 6. The method of claim 4, whereincalculating the user personalized grade for each respective medicationin the set of medications based on the safety risks of the respectivemedication comprises determining whether the safety risks decrease a netbenefit derived from the user taking the respective medication.
 7. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the user personalized grade is calculated foreach respective medication in the set of medications based on whetherthe safety risks are known or unknown for the respective medication. 8.The method of claim 1, wherein the server is further operative to:filter the set of medications presented in the second graphical userinterface such that only medications which have been approved by anadministrative body can be displayed in the second graphical userinterface while medications that have not been approved by theadministrative body are not displayed.
 9. The method of claim 1, whereinthe request is a purchase request, and further responsive to the requestfrom the user device, the server is further operative to, furtherresponsive to the particular medication presenting more than thethreshold amount of risk to the user, prevent the user from purchasingthe particular medication by not fulfilling the request.